George Hayward, 2012 North Queensland Sustainability student blogger, writes:

Wednesday, June 6

‘On the Wallaby’ backpackers

Today we arrived at our second last location: a homey place called “On the Wallaby.” It’s a backpacker’s lodge with probably the friendliest staff we’ve encountered so far. This was evident as soon as we arrived when Tracy (one of the employees) greeted us with smiles, jokes, and a genuine feeling of camaraderie.

After the unpacking and exploratory phases of relocation, I joined a bunch of other students on a platypussearch in a nearby stream. We had a guide with us who could say “platypus” in every language that the name exists. How cool is that? And yes, we tested him!

Searching for platypus

While we were on our search, we saw a platypus within a few minutes. It was so cute…and certainly much smaller than I expected. Because they spend so much time below the water, it was hard to get good photographs but luckily I took some video as well!

Thursday, June 7

Today we went to a nearby tablelands lookout where we met up with our first lecturer of the day, Dr. Jack Grant. He spoke to us about the Tablelands and the purposes it serves. Then went to Mabi forest and discussed both the signs of a healthy forest and edge effects. It was eye-opening to see the implications of rainforest fragmentation on the tablelands. We learned that quite often there are deleterious effects.

Our next stop was another patch of rainforest not far away. The attraction here was an absolutely massive curtain fig tree. It looks a lot like a place Tarzan would live. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Rafiki (the monkey from the Lion King)lived at the top! It was truly magnificent and is a testimony to nature’s inventiveness and beauty.

On our last stop with professor Jack we went to a reforestation area that served as a corridor between two patches of rainforest. We pulled weeds in two teams. It was important to do this

The weed pulling champions!

work because weeds pull nutrients from the soil and keep other plants from fully growing. We were a great team, with the minor exception of two guys who found large sticks and chose to battle each other! According to them, they provided the “entertainment” while we worked. I find this hard to believe! Luckily, we had all developed our friendships prior to today.

Before dinner we had a lecture from an Aboriginal named Doug who talked about his past and present life. He also discussed Aboriginal culture, including the differences between tribes and their respective customs. It was a very authentic look into a lifestyle that’s still very new to me!

Doug giving his lecture

To end the day on a massive high note, we went night canoeing in a nearby man-made lake. It instantly became worth the trip once we got off the bus: the night sky was filled with so many starts all twenty of us just stopped in our tracks and looked up. It was the most beautiful sky I had ever seen, and was so clear that we could even see (what I think were) clouds of stardust and light. On the actual canoe ride we saw three tree kangaroos, including a mother and its baby. Even our guide said it was rare to see them as close as we did.